The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-07-07
THINGS AND THINGS.
Points Picked Out From Seventeen
Years IN Newspaperdom.
BY EpHRAIM PRINDLE.l


all humanity the purest sample of fresh
ness that l could find, / would select the
young man who has just entered a news
paper office as worker. Take him where
ever you find him, and he is the same.
news paper man, quiet, plodding, simple
and content to do his allotted work, he
holds in contemptuous scorn, fer he is a
"iournalist"-a least, that is the way his
cards read
NV
What the beginner of the business thinks
he knows, and the weight of responsibility
he deems to be upon his shoulders, would
break the back of an Atlas. But
in due course of season, when the city
or managing editor has used his pencil in
work of erasure half thousand times or
so, the work of development sometimes
begins, and good newspaper man is the
result.
***
John Maddox delights in telling a yarn
on one of his old school mates; know it
is yarn for know the young man, and
know John Maddox also, and his love of
joke. will vouch for it that the sub
ject of his joke is modest and retiring
young gentleman, who would as soon
think of burning his tongue as doing an
act such as Maddox charges against him.
However, the story is SO well put, as
illustrative of freshness, that
give it. John says that back
in his college days in old kentucky,
among his schoolmates was a youngster
who took to scribbling for the news
papers, and put on airs accordingly; that
this young Journalist" upon one &C.
casion, visited Louisville, apd, registering
at the Gait house, made il convenient dur
ing the evening to meet Courier-Journ
reporter and present him with his card
and the information that he was guest
of the Gait house, the information being
deftly supported by 20 bill. The
Courier Journal next morning presented
a personal that "Mr. So and SO, of Such
and Such, was visiting the city
and making himself at home
at the Gait house; if you don't
believe the assertion we have So to show
that it is So"
Johns Imagination was always vivid,
even at college, and this yarn, which he
perpetrated through one of the society
papers in the university seventeen years
ago, he has brought forth in Austin for
purposes of bedevilment to young man
who is, as have said, mild hammered and
modest.
***
1 have but recently renewed, in Austin,
an acquaintance which began in the way
back days, but the lapse of time makes il
none the less pleasant. l refer to Hon
James B. Clark, proctor of the university
When l first met him, in 1871, he
was editor of the Kentucky People, {
weekly paper published at Harrodsburg,
which in its time ranked among the fore
most weeklies of the state, both in circula
ton and in influence He WAS then {
much younger and younger looking maj
than he is to-day, but find that he hal
lost none of the urbanity and geniality
which made him a favorite with his
brother quill drivers in the days of Lang
Syne.
***
If he could be induced to write up the
recollections of his busy life on the Ken
!, lucky People, he might afford some in
teresting reading matter. He has tn
, wherewithal of experience upon which t.
, draw for large score of "Reminiscences.
***
> He could tell of the Durham Owsle
! race for congress of the terrible ThomI
! son-Davies battle in the Harrodsbur
: court house, and of the canvass down i
: the backwoods, when Proctor Kuott rid
=, culed John M. Harlan to such degree q
to make him give up his speaking az
pointments and go home sick. An eli
boration of any OF these events woul
read Interestingly we'll.
I NIX
One of the queerest characters / eve
came across was Tom Maitland He we
an Irishman, every inch of him, and wit
g it crank in the fullest sense of the wore
J. He worked on the Cincinnati Enquire
g along in 1872; got drunk, wrote up some
= thing which raised row, and th
i conclusion of the matter wa
9 his discharge. He then went over to lie,
# ington, and Colonel Hart Gibson put hiI
z to work on the Press of that city. Insid
of fortnight he had got "on to" sen
y sation, which he dished up to the tune {
: about four columns of as racy details {
ever made the acquaintance of tyr
= rack. Any one who knows staid aud gel
Q teel old Lexington will readily under
9 stand what bolt from cloudless SIX
d this scan mag proved to be. The papt
o sold like hot cakes, to be sure-whoevt
y saw the time paper wouldn't sell If
was rich in sauciness-at the same tim
" there was large sized cunning expe
dition set on foot for the man who wroi
is the matter. Irish-like, Maitland woul
h fight, and fight he wanted to when th
It parties called at the Office. They were o
,e the ground floor, and he was In tn
Q editorial room up stairs, with Henri
Duncan, O'Mahony and myself hol
ing him, while Gibson was arguing IL
n question below. The result was thi
l. Maitland was sent back to Cincinnati. +
10 was energetic and enterpriring, but
u was decidedly too lurid.
t ***
70 Poor Tom! He was genial compal
If ion, Jolly fellow; could sing song, Il
story, drink seven hot apple toddies al
call for another with the remark: "Plas
10 Pat, and put more whisky with less app
in this one" He wandered from Cinci
natl eastward, and l lost sight OF hi
z until 1880. or thereabouts, when read
~ the New York papers of his return from
Cuban fillibusteriDg expedition, which b
at proved unsuccessful. A year later l roI
Of his being sent to one of the New 70
a. inaa ma aavIurna and hut tuo wanna a00